Latest recount twist comes as canvassing board expects to finish its work next week

To kick out the old year, Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman asked the state Supreme Court for new rules on the sorting of ballots, while across Minnesota, county and campaign officials agreed to send hundreds of mistakenly rejected absentee ballots to the state for counting.

Despite the late 2008 activity, the Great Minnesota Recount is nearly done. Really.

Early next week, a panel of judges and the secretary of state is prepared to declare a winner. While there may still be court contests, which could hold up the winner being seated, the panel's declaration would end the 2-month-old recount.

Democrat Al Franken leads by 49 votes. But that lead could change. The latest tally doesn't include any of the absentee ballots local election officials mistakenly didn't include in their counting. Those ballots are expected to be recounted this weekend in a state Capitol hearing room.

The state Supreme Court, in response to a previous suit by the Coleman campaign, set up a process requiring both campaigns and local officials to agree on each of those ballots before it could be counted.

In most counties, only ballots identified by local officials have been eligible to even be considered for inclusion. Counties identified about 1,350 such ballots, but not all will be counted:

Anoka County officials put 37 ballots on the list, but because Franken or Coleman officials rejected some Wednesday, only 21 will be forwarded for counting.

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Out of Ramsey County's list of 133, 71 will be sent on because county or campaign officials objected to the others. The county pulled eight, Coleman 21 and Franken 33.

In Dakota County, about 115 will be forwarded, roughly 65 fewer than county officials had identified as wrongfully rejected.

In Hennepin County, out of 231 ballots reviewed Wednesday, 182 will be sent to the state, while 48 were rejected — exactly half by each campaign. The county has 98 ballots to review Friday morning.

In a subbasement hearing room, surrounded by boxes of election materials, eight Hennepin County staffers, two Coleman attorneys, at least two Franken attorneys, assorted campaign staff and a clutch of reporters witnessed the sorting of ballots, which took most of the day.

Like at other sorting sites, the mood in Hennepin County was civil and cooperative but sometimes intense.

Because campaign officials can veto which ballots to forward, they often would stare for long, silent moments at a ballot signature to see if it matched the absentee ballot signature or the dates on a voter registration card. They could look all they wanted but were forbidden from touching the ballots county attorney Dan Rogan held out for inspection.

Most passed muster. The campaigns agreed to include the ballot of a blind voter from Brooklyn Center whose assistant signed his voter registration card, which an election judge took for a signature mismatch.

Some did not. The Coleman campaign rejected six ballots from Brooklyn Center because they had been removed from their ballot secrecy envelopes and it was impossible to tell whether the voters properly followed the absentee ballot rules.

By Wednesday's end, about 90 percent of the absentee ballots the state's 87 counties proposed for sorting had been sorted.

But after all that, the Coleman campaign late Wednesday said the process for sorting was unfair.

The campaigns, state officials and local officials agreed to the sorting process last week and won approval from the state Supreme Court. But the Coleman campaign said the process wasn't working out the way it was supposed to.

The standards for sorting varied county to county, the campaign said, and more than 650 ballots it says should be included have been rejected.

According to the secretary of state and the Franken campaign, the Coleman campaign didn't forward their list of those absentee ballots by the agreed upon deadline of 3 p.m. Monday.

This week, some county officials refused to consider the late Coleman arrivals and other counties officials said they would be willing to consider only those the Franken campaign also said should be included. Few, if any, of the Coleman campaign's proposed additions have been included.

Over the past several weeks, the Franken campaign provided affidavits from voters whose absentee ballots were rejected and it says should be included in the count. Some of those voters' ballots were considered; many were not.

Marc Elias, Franken recount attorney, said the campaign is willing to accept that — even though it wasn't completely pleased with the counties' lists of ballots — because it is willing to abide by the court's order.

But the Coleman campaign wants a new court order.

In its filing Wednesday, the Coleman campaign asked the court to demand that any absentee ballot local officials or either campaign believe was wrongly rejected should be sent to state offices for sorting. That, the campaign said, would clear up any confusion and create a consistent process.

The system Coleman wants, "would include everything and put it in a single pile," said Fritz Knaak, lead Coleman recount attorney. The pile of about 2,000 ballots would include any ballot that either campaign examined and rejected in the last few days as well as many that weren't even considered.

Elias said the Coleman campaign is asking the court for a "do over" because its cherry-picked ballots weren't accepted. He said the Franken campaign wasn't willing to let the Coleman campaign rewrite the rules all had agreed to.

"Minnesotans are ready to move forward in the New Year and recognize a winner in this race," he said.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie also objected.

His office released a statement, which emphasized that he and his staff have been working with the campaigns and local election officials to finish the count of absentee ballots by Sunday.

"This process, now 90 percent complete, was agreed upon by both campaigns, local officials, and the Secretary of State on the afternoon of December 24, 2008. We look forward to the completion of the state canvassing board's work next week," the statement said.

But the Coleman campaign said there is no rush.

"The fact is that delays are fairly laid at the doorstep of all parties," it said in its emergency motion.

Knaak further said: "We reject the notion that speed is more important than accuracy. And, we clearly reject the premise that the Franken campaign and the Secretary of State's office can decide there is an expiration date on the right of any Minnesotan's vote to count in this election."